that cute butter lettuce with the roots still growing and alive, in the plastic box?
I bought one of those butter lettuces two months ago and the darn thing lasted over 2 weeks in my refer and was very tasty and fresh the entire time. I kept it in a bit of water at the roots

Karen, I would, and do, buy bagged romaine hearts (usually Tanamura & Antle brand), and I don't see any point in changing this practice in light of the current scare, although I might be even more careful than usual about washing.

I've bought the rooted butter lettuce on occasion (and also, more frequently, a local delicacy, Kentucky Bibb lettuce, in similar format. I like the impression of freshness, but to be honest, I generally buy them and eat them for dinner the same day. I can't imagine one lasting two months around here.

Well, realistically, what's the alternative? Is J. Random Local Farmer any more trustworthy than the big agricultural outfits when it comes to fertilizer hygeine? I don't think so. I can't grow my own salad greens. It's either trust the produce I get at the supermarket or go without. Putting the current spinach scare into perspective, we're still talking about struck-by-lightning odds here of serious illness. I take a far greater health risk driving to work every day.

That being said, I'll be washing my fresh veggies more thoroughly from now on. But I won't stop buying packaged salad greens. The alternative is buying various whole lettuces, and that means letting them sit around in the fridge for a week or two as I slowly consume them. And that I think poses a greater risk than buying a pack of mixed salad greens that I consume in a few days--the longer the stuff sits around, the more opporunity for nasty bacteria to breed.